n crimson, and darted a quick, half-guilty
look at Mr. Corbin. Then she turned again to the detective.

"Did you?--and so did others, I suppose!" she cried, with a short,
scornful laugh. "Well, then, let me tell you that until I set my wits at
work my income was only about twenty-five hundred dollars a year; and
what was that paltry sum to a woman with my tastes?

"I do not care who knows now," she went on, with increasing excitement;
"I have been humiliated to the lowest degree, and I shall glory in
telling you how a woman has managed to outwit keen business men, sharp
detectives, and clever police. In the first place, those crescents were
presented to me at the time of my marriage. They are, as you have
doubtless observed, wonderful jewels--as nearly flawless as it is
possible to find diamonds. When I went to Chicago I was poor, for I
had been extravagant that year and overdrawn my income. Money I must
have--money I would have; and then it was that I attempted, for the first
time, to carry out a scheme which I had planned while I was abroad the
previous year. I had ordered a widow's outfit to be made, and padded in
a way to entirely change my figure. I also purchased that red wig. While
in Paris I learned the art of changing the expression of my face, by the
skillful use of pencils and paint, and thus, dressed in my mourning
costume with my eyebrows and lashes tinged to match my false hair, no
one would ever have recognized me as Mrs. Montague.

"I had also provided myself, while in Paris, with several pairs of
crescents, the exact counterparts, in everything save value, of the
costly ones in my possession. I need not repeat the story of my success
in getting money from Justin Cutler--you already know it; but I was so
elated over the fact that I immediately went on to Boston, where I won
even a larger sum from Mrs. Vanderheck."

"Yes; but how did you manage to change the jewels in that case, since you
were with Mrs. Vanderheck from the time you left the expert until she
paid you the money for them?" inquired Mr. Rider, who was deeply
interested in this cunningly devised scheme.

"That was easily done," Mrs. Montague returned. "I had the case in my
lap, and the duplicate crescents in my pocket. It required very little
ingenuity on my part to so engage Mrs. Vanderheck's attention that I
could abstract the real stones from the case and replace them with the
others. Regarding the Palmer affair," she continued, with a